Angel Cop

Sometime in the future, terrorism in Japan has become commonplace, and the police have become almost as brutal as criminals. A member of the Special Security Force known as Angel, is the best of the best, stopping at nothing in her fight for justice.

Things get interesting for Angel and her partner, Raiden, when they begin investigating a series of murders in which the victims were known criminals, killed in very unpleasant ways. This trio of killers known as Hunters, is a group of psychics that have banded together to hunt down the lowest scum in the city and bring them to justice.

After a couple of encounters between the cops and the psychics, two of the psychics begin to think that maybe they're not the good guys after all; but the third prefers killing to morality. Augmented by cybernetics from a mysterious source, this third hunter heads out on a killing spree, with the Special Security Force as the first target.

Even with help from the other two psychics and her newly cyborged partner (after an unfortunate accident), Angel is going to have her work cut out trying to find the rogue psychic and the organization behind the Hunters.

Mikawa, Angel Main

Doi, Mika Japanese

Sakada, Isamu Main

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Lucifer Supporting

Hironaka, Kumiko Japanese

Asura Supporting

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Haishyo, Taki Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Ichihara Supporting

Kitamura, Kouichi Japanese

Freya Supporting

Mizutani, Yuuko Japanese

Togawa Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Tachihara Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Maisaka Supporting

Saka, Osamu Japanese

Itano, Ichirou Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Screenplay, Animation Director, Original Creator

Aikawa, Shou Script

Wolskel, John Script

Kitakubo, Hiroyuki Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 26, 2023

Bensonas

Recommended

First things first with this one. I was aware of this exact issue before I started and yet still I went along with it, walking straight into it with full understanding....the dub genuinely is horrendous, especially Freya. Freya's dub voice acting in particular is honestly one of the worst I have ever heard. It's not necessarily the scripts fault either. Has some decent parts of dialogue, some of them great in fact, a lot of the character acting is just really garbage. Despite this, I'm not going to hold it against the show. Long before Funimation was the dominant dubbing force it is today, we ... had stuff like this. So, I'm going to give it a break. Mainly because the show is genuinely pretty damn good, setting the dub aside.

Just like with all animation from the Golden Era, this is in the same vein. It's great. There some very well executed scenes here and, speaking retrospectively from a guy born in 91, ahead of its time (take that comment with a pinch of salt). I have zero complaints about how any of the animation was executed. Great colour pallet, excellently captured movement, excellently drawn characters, it's really great.

The story is pretty damn solid too. You may read the synopsis and think 'how could this go wrong' and well, you'd be right. It essentially set itself up to not fail. As I understand it, a lot of the sci-fi elements from the Manga were omitted, having not read the Manga, I have no issue with this as I don't know what I'm missing. Upon the shows conclusion, I didn't think anything was missing in fact. The show had great pacing, decent character development and a not dissatisfying conclusion. It did everything it needed to I guess. It certainly didn't blow me away but I'm not sure it needed to. It just needed to be solid. It delivers on that.

I normally stick to 3 key points of review when writing these; Animation, story and music. Not sure I can tell you much about the music to be completely honest. I've reached the end of this show and have no recollection of what I heard. So I can really review it. What I will say however is if it was incredible, I would have noticed. Equally, if it was garbage it would have noticed to. But I didn't, therefore, again, this anime did what it needed to on another front.

In summary I would recommed it. For those who haven't experienced much of the Golden Era, it's a good example of it outside of the obvious choices of Bebop and Trigun etc. For thos who have experience with the Golden Era, I would still recommend it as the more familiar one is with this era of anime, the better it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 25, 2024

AeroGunz

Mixed Feelings

“Angel Cop” is what happens when the 80s hit hard and I do mean HARD!

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

That said, this show has ... little to no story at all, it’s all plot driven. The very little story there is, is wasted on the absolute atrocities pretend to be characters. A lot and I do mean A LOT of things happened not because it makes logical sense or is internally coherent with the characters, but because the almighty plot demands it. Especially the titular Angel, but I’ll get to that.

This show is as 80s as it gets. You get a lot of cliches and tackiness that defined that era. I’m not sure You can truly understand how “special” that time was if You haven’t lived through it. Most things were over the top and that includes using violence and eroticism in movies, shows and animations. Unfortunately it’s also the time when animations were a lot of things, but well written wasn’t something that happened often and this show is the perfect example of that.

For starters it doesn't really know what it wants to be. Is it a futuristic cop show? Is it a political drama? Is it an action flick? Is it a supernatural sci-fi? Each and everyone of those questions have the same answer: “Yes and No”. It mashes all of those themes and subjects together but does so half-assed.

The most obvious reason why the show doesn’t stick the landing is the fact that it’s only 6 episodes. The show sets up a lot of things. Some of them being cyborg modifications, understanding of justice and morality and on top of that some pretty heavy handed politics. In 6 episodes it wants to cover material for at least 24 (and that’s only if we are talking about mediocre writing and not something logical and using any kind of cause and effect structure). As a result most things are hasted and the passing of the show suffers greatly. In just one episode we have a pretty slow and methodical investigation, supernatural killings and a setup to a full blown urban combat encounter. None of those have the time to breathe and mature to fully utilise them. As a consequence this show doesn’t have a proper structure of “And because of that” and instead uses “and then that happened”. Needless to say it butchers any kind of logic.

The second thing that makes this show pretty bad is the main cast. It’s too big. We are introduced to a lot of characters in episode one and the list just get’s bigger as the show continues. Unfortunately almost all characters have just one trait that pretends to be their personality. We don’t even get proper introductions to them, they are just there. The show puts them in some plot elements but because it’s just plot and not story or even proper character introduction You really don’t care if they live or die.
Ok… I delayed it long enough. Let’s talk about my bane of the show…
Angel - Despite giving her name to the title she is by far the most incoherent character in the show. I almost feel glad that she doesn’t have a lot of screen time in the first 4 episodes. She’s partnered with Raiden, the only character that I would say is morally sound. She’s what a 14 year old would consider cool and her design is pretty standard for the 80s, with the hair, jacked and bike. She has a very twisted view on morality and justice. She’s ok with killing terrorists, she doesn’t even pretend to shoot to incapacitate them. Her introduction is the killing of one of the suspects in a rather brutal way. You could say that she wanted to save Raiden’s life but that’s just an excuse. It’s proven she’s an excellent shot so shooting the gun out the terrorist's hands or injuring the limbs would be easy for her. No, she went for the kill. But when someone else wants to do it she suddenly acts like a proper cop should, and that's the moment after she tried to shoot one who used a child as a hostage. It’s pretty clear in the first episode that she’s probably a sociopath that is lying to herself that she’s the good guy.
What’s more idiotic with her writing is her change of heart, I think it was in episode 5, where she acts almost like she cares about civilians and actual justice and not just the “Kill them all and let god sort them out” kind. Suddenly she shows competitions towards two psychers (yes, this show has psychic powers) and even Raiden, hell, she even kisses the man… when he’s unconscious but it still counts. There is no progression to her new state. There is no story here. One episode she likes to kill, the other she decided that maybe protecting others is a better way to do her job. It happens only because the plot demands it to make her final fight more impactful.

If we’re on the subject of morality then the “good” guys aren’t so morally sound (except Raiden). They are not above torturing the subject in some pretty original and gruesome ways to get the information they need. Interestingly the show doesn’t make excuses for them. It doesn’t play the “It’s for the greater good” card. Those cops are doing this because it’s their job and probably the fastest way to achieve their goals. One of the members is even stated to have some (but not much) doubts. I like it. I hate when shows justify immoral actions by trying to make the lesser evil good. This time everyone knows they are assholes and they accept it. Someone has to do it so it might as well be them.

If I had a choice I would give more screen time to the psychers, they actually pretend to have an arc with all the internal squabble and desertion. The three Hunters (as they are called) are a pretty interesting bunch. A kid wielding something of a pyrokinesis, a teeager with teleportation and psychokinesis and a blond, probably 30-something called Lucifer using psychokinesis, energy drain and mind reading. This bunch is more interesting than the main cast.

The investigative parts of the show are what really bummed me out. I love proper detective mysteries. I love the whole shabang: gathering clues, interviewing suspects, putting things together, it's awesome… if done right. Unfortunately this show rushes everything. It has to, it only has 6 episodes. Thanks to that the investigations of the terrorist attacks from the very start of the show is done before the halfway mark and the political drama is revealed an episode later and on a silver platter. The reason why the investigation went so fast is because the plot demanded it, it had no time to set up something logical so it made circumstantial evidence lead to the only proper solution.

The final part is actually the one that I enjoyed and I call it “The 80s fluff” in this category the show serves us all the things You would expect, blood, gore, some naked breasts, shootouts and even a robocop ripoff. If for nothing else the final fight with Lucifer is an entertaining watch and actually properly shows her determination and faith in her cause. She’s not evil for evil’s sake and she doesn’t just take everything lying down. When she’s down, she gets up like a proper villain should (something today's anime writers don't have a damn clue about). She wants to achieve her goal by any means necessary and will stop at nothing to do so. She’s shown as a serious threat and actually defeating her feels earned and not given by some deus ex machina fuckery.

At the end of the day this show is badly written in almost all aspects. It’s a shame because it had a lot of potential. The world was solid, the atmosphere of violence, corruption and distrust was there. I would even say that Angel, Raiden and Lucifer had potential as characters. All that was needed was a writer with the skill to use those elements properly and maybe focus more on what kind of show it wants to be. Shame it never got one.
I guess if You just want to watch a blast from the past with some blood, gore and women kicking ass it can be enjoyable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Jun 4, 2024

EverySportsAnime

Not Recommended

I finished it for clarity, and I never got it.

As a Jewish person, this is by far the worst anime I’ve seen. The entire anime is just absolutely racist abt heavily anti-Semitic. It reads as if the plot was taken directly from Mein Kampf; “the Jews run the world, the Jews are out to get us, the Jews have the power to destroy us, the Jews are terrorists.” It’s honestly disgusting.

To the people that have recommended this film- have you never met a Jewish person? Do you feel as if this would be something to recommend them? If you haven’t met a Jewish person, ... I implore you to, and then please never show them this. Never watch it again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Angel Cop Episode 5 Discussion jonnjonzz - Sep 18, 2011	11 replies	by TheVistrian »» Yesterday, 8:15 PM
	Poll: Angel Cop Episode 4 Discussion jonnjonzz - Sep 18, 2011	5 replies	by TheVistrian »» Yesterday, 8:15 PM
	Poll: Angel Cop Episode 3 Discussion jonnjonzz - Sep 18, 2011	7 replies	by TheVistrian »» Yesterday, 8:14 PM
	Is Angel Cop an obscure anime? Greg1 - Jan 30, 2018	4 replies	by Damnits »» May 9, 2:42 AM
	Poll: Angel Cop Episode 2 Discussion jonnjonzz - Sep 18, 2011	8 replies	by TheVistrian »» Apr 13, 7:28 PM

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